Blitz: The League refused rating in Australia

Blitz: The League makes you do drugs. You shouldn't play it. At least if you …

Here's the thing about the ratings board in Australia: there is no rating for 15+ when it comes to video games. Kind of lame, right? If the game looks like it would be too harmful for fifteen year-olds, it's refused classification and thus banned from sale in Australian stores. That doesn't mean people can't get the game, it just becomes trickier. I'm not going to argue about whether or not adults should be able to choose what they can and can't see, that's a much larger issue, but this would annoy me greatly if I lived in Australia. The newest game to be banned? Midway's Blitz: The League. Apparently the game promotes drug use.

"While the game player can choose not to use the drugs, in the Board's majority view there is an incentive to use them," said a statement from the OFLC.

"By using them judiciously, the player can improve the performance of the football team (while managing the negative effects) and have a better chance of winning games, thereby winning bets and climbing the league table," said the Board.

It's true, you can juice your players to get their stats up or to help them recover quicker after an injury. Seriously, though, at this stage in professional sports Madden should add that feature to make the game a true simulation. In that same write-up, it's mentioned that Australia didn't get Marc Ecko's Getting Up, so maybe they are protecting the populace.

I disagree with most censorship, but this seems like an especially silly rating. The game has bad language, drug use, and use of prostitutes. This stuff is shocking if you're 13 maybe, but not to anyone else.